This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 from my two applications MODULE AND METHOD FOR RECORDING AND REPRODUCING MUSIC FILE IN MODULAR TELEVISION APPARATUS filed with the Korean Industrial Property Office on Sep. 19, 2000 and there duly assigned Ser. No. 54996/2000, and MUSIC FILE RECORDING/REPRODUCING MODULE FOR AV SYSTEM filed with the Korean Industrial Property Office on May 11, 2001 and there duly assigned Ser. No. 25871/2001.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an audio/video (AV) system and, more particularly, to a music audio file recording/reproducing module mounted in an AV system that reproduces various AV source data.
2. Related Art
Digital ground wave broadcasting which complies with the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standards began in November 1998. Consumer electronics product manufacturers are disclosing various digital media products, including digital televisions capable of receiving digital broadcasts, and digital versatile disc (DVD) players and digital camcorders capable of recording and reproducing digital broadcasts.
As various digital media apparatuses particularly related to the digital TV market are disclosed, potential consumers are being confused. New specifications are being developed at such a fast rate that digital TVs are becoming more complicated and new products are quickly becoming obsolete.
New digital media products, such as digital broadcast receiving apparatuses, satellite broadcast receiving apparatuses, DVD players, hard disc drives, and Internet access apparatuses, are being designed in such a way as to increase the number of manipulation methods a user has to learn and the number of remote controllers which must be used. In addition, a user has to pay a lot of money to buy such digital media products. Also, the digital media products take up a large amount of space in a house, and each digital media product needs a power line for operation. It is very burdensome to connect lines between a DVD player and a digital TV monitor.
Meanwhile, the appearance of digital media products has made it possible to have a home network connecting multiple home appliances in a house. If the home network is implemented, a user can control multiple appliances in the house with only one controller. In addition, the user can control the appliances in the house through the Internet, even when the user is in a remote place.
Also, the developments in digital technology have enabled music, which was once provided in analog format, to be provided in digital format. In particular, in line with developments in compression technologies and error correction technologies, a music audio file, which is usually bigger than a text file, can be freely transmitted and received through the Internet.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a music file recording/reproducing module mounted in an AV system, which implements a plurality of digital media apparatuses in one system, the music file recording/reproducing module storing a music file received from the outside and reproducing the received music file.
To accomplish the object of the present invention, there is provided a music file recording/reproducing module, which is mounted in a module rack formed in an audio/video (AV) system capable of reproducing audio data, the music file recording/reproducing module comprising: a communications interface unit for receiving audio data, which is encoded by a predetermined encoding method, from the AV system; a decoder for decoding the audio data, which is encoded by the encoding method; and a control unit for sending the audio data, which is decoded by the decoder, to the AV system.
It is preferable that the music file recording/reproducing module further comprise: an audio storage unit in which audio data is recorded; and an audio writing unit for writing the encoded audio data in the audio storage unit; wherein the control unit receives a record command input from a user, and sends the command to the audio recording unit.
It is preferable that the music file recording/reproducing module further comprise an audio reading unit for reading the encoded audio data written in the audio storage unit, wherein the decoder decodes the encoded audio data read by the audio reading unit and the control unit receives a read command input from the user, sends the command to the audio reading unit, and sends the audio data, which is decoded by the decoder, to the AV system.
It is preferable that the audio storage unit comprise an external memory card in which audio data encoded by the encoding method is stored, and an external memory card mounting unit in which the external memory card is detachably mounted.
It is preferable that the encoding method be an MP3 method, and that the decoder be an MP3 decoder. It is preferable that the AV system have an IEEE1394 interface module, and that the communications interface unit be an IEEE1394 interface module which communicates with the IEEE1394 interface module contained in the AV system.